Originally published December 29, 2016 at 8:50 am
Updated December 29, 2016 at 11:21 am

Patent applications by Amazon for drones that band together to form a bigger drone or flying warehouses held aloft by blimps show how busily the company is thinking about its aerial-delivery initiative.

Share story

Amazon.com scientists have dreamed up a scheme straight out of “Voltron,” a 1980s animated show for kids where several vehicles joined together to form an evil-fighting super-robot. In this case it’s a super-drone.

In a patent filing dated Thursday, the e-commerce giant says it wants to build a “collective” unmanned aerial vehicle by having smaller drones stick together in various configurations. That would allow the super-drone to carry “virtually any size, weight, or quantity of items, travel longer distances, etc.,” the application reads. The drones can also fly together somewhere and then decouple to make individual deliveries.

The idea would allow Amazon to field just one type of drone, instead of several types in which each is designed to carry different types of packages or travel at various distances. It’s just another patent from a company that files plenty of them, but it shows how busily Amazon is thinking about the drone delivery program first announced by CEO Jeff Bezos in 2013.

In a patent filing dated Thursday, the e-commerce giant says it wants to build a super-drone, made up of smaller, uniform drones stuck together in various configurations. (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)

Drones are important to Amazon because their widespread use would allow the company to bring down its last-mile delivery costs from a few dollars to a few cents for each package. The first commercial drone delivery took place this month in the U.K.

In another patent filing, Amazon says it intends to deploy blimp warehouses, with the ability to send drones to customers from 45,000 feet high. (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)

It would float above a city at 45,000 feet of height, and hold not only thousands of items, but a fleet of drones. Gravity would make the drones more energy efficient, as they wouldn’t have to power up until they’re close to the ground. The drones could make their way back to the mothership in a shuttle, accompanied by packages and workers not afraid of heights. It can move to hover over other cities based on demand.

One can only imagine the jungle of actual technological implementation and regulation such a venture would encounter in order to become reality. So it might remain in the realm of science fiction for a while.